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NASCAR WCUP: Schrader remembers the hard walls of Darlington

2 September 1999

SCHRADER'S THOUGHTS HEADING INTO THE PEPSI SOUTHERN 500:

* "The wall at Darlington can be very intimidating," said Schrader. "The track likes to scare you by never painting the wall after someone hits it. There are black stripes all the way around the track. The preferred line through the turns is at the top of the race track, which means the wall is right there. The turns are also very tight, so it becomes physically demanding for the driver for 500 laps."

CREW CHIEF SHOP TALK:

* "We are going to run the same car we raced at both Pocono events, the Brickyard 400 and the last Michigan race," said Sam Johns. "We had a pretty good car at Darlington in the spring, but weren't able to produce a good finish. On the first lap, Rick Mast had a problem and tried getting down to the apron. Everyone lifted out of the gas, but Steve Park didn't get slowed down and drove into the back of the Skoal Racing Monte Carlo. There was a lot of damage, but we got back out and made some laps."

SKOAL RACING TEAM NEWS:

* The Skoal Racing team, along with seven other Chevrolet teams, were in St. Louis, Mo., at Gateway International Raceway testing the new 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo on August 30-31.

"I think the test went well," said Johns. "We were one of the top three cars at the test. We never made a qualifying run, but were still one of the fastest cars. We might be able to apply some of the information we learned to our current chassis program. The aerodynamic information will obviously have to wait until next year."

* Schrader will leave directly from Darlington for Los Angeles to compete in the LA Street Race. From there, he will head to Salt Lake City to compete in the Winston West event at Rocky Mountain Raceways.

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